Are Grey Market Watch Dealers Legit?
I get this question all the time, and the simple answer is it depends. I have purchased 4 watches from the Grey Market and 2 watches from an Authorized Dealer. It comes down to 3 main factors: price, reliability, and availability.
Before getting into the details, it is important to understand some basic facts about Grey Market dealers.
A grey market dealer sells watches outside of the brand approved distribution channels (Authorized Dealers). The grey market is perfectly legal. When I first learned about Grey dealers, I was confused at how they were able to sell brand new time pieces below the price of the official retailer. These are some of the questions that came to mind.
- Are their watches real?
- If you buy from a well known grey market dealer/retailer, the time pieces are 100% authentic. Doing a quick google search about a grey market dealer will lead to countless reviews needed to confirm whether the dealer is legit or not.
- Where do they get their watches from?
- Grey dealers get their watches from Authorized Dealers! Huh? How does that make sense. Okay.. so let’s think about Rolex for a minute. The Rolex factory sends pieces to their authorized dealers, the authorized dealer can’t pick and choose which models he wants delivered, he has to take whatever Rolex sends him. A lot of the times he gets stuck with watches that nobody wants to buy. The Grey market dealer has an established relationship with said Authorized Dealer, the grey market dealer comes and buys pieces in bulk from the Authorized Dealer and apart of this transaction for getting some of the in demand pieces, he will also buy the watches that no one wants. That is how the authorized dealers gets rid of the less demanded pieces.
- Does it come with the factory warranty from a Grey market dealer?
- Some grey market dealers will sell the watches without the factory warranty, but will provide their own in house warranty as a substitute. Most of the time though, the factory warranty comes with the watch. Let’s run a scenario with a Rolex. Rolex’s have a 5 year factory warranty. If I was a grey market dealer and purchased the watch from an AD in January, then a customer purchased it from me in March, their factory warranty would have started from when I purchased the watch (January).
Now that we have a basic understanding of what is a grey market dealer. When to buy from them vs buying from an AD.
Price
Price is an important factor when you are spending thousands on a watch. For every watch, except the really in demand pieces, the grey market dealer will be cheaper. It varies by model, but sometimes they will be up to 45% below the retail price for the same watch you would buy from an AD.
For the really in-demand pieces, the grey market dealer will be more expensive than the retailer. Since the retailers will be sold out of that piece or have a really long wait list, grey market dealers are able to charge a lot more for those pieces because of the demand. If you are trying to get an in demand piece at the retail price, your best bet is to establish a relationship with the Authorized Dealer.
Reliability
At the end of the day, there are a ton of counterfeit watches floating around in the market. When you spend thousands on a watch, you want the piece of mind knowing that it is 100% authentic. Obviously, the most peace of mind you’d ever have is buying directly from an Authorized dealer, but that comes with the cost of paying a lot more usually.
There are plenty of well-known reputable grey market dealers. If you purchase through them, you’ll have peace of mind that it is real. Never wire money to a grey market dealer, always use a credit card (for the piece of mind component)
Some reputable Grey Market dealers:
Availability
If price is not an issue for you, here is where Grey market dealers always win the battle. If you are looking for that super in-demand timepiece that currently has a 5-year waitlist at an AD, a grey market dealer will have one in stock. You’ll end up paying a lot more, but you also won’t have to wait 5 years.
Happy watch hunting!
As always, if you have any questions, Ask Baba.
